New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale

Using Butler's theory of gender performativity and her analysis of the psychic form of power, this paper attempts to show how the modification of gender by power in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has resulted in an identity crisis in the female protagonist, Offred. One signif...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Moosavinia, Sayyed Rahim, Yousefi, Tayyebeh Behvand
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2018
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/1/20490-71907-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-12881
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-128812019-05-09T11:05:04Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/ New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale Moosavinia, Sayyed Rahim Yousefi, Tayyebeh Behvand Using Butler's theory of gender performativity and her analysis of the psychic form of power, this paper attempts to show how the modification of gender by power in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has resulted in an identity crisis in the female protagonist, Offred. One significant aspect of the totalitarian regime of Gilead is its gender hierarchy that is further consolidated through sex discourse. Sex in Gilead turns into a privilege granted only to men of high social status. Men are presented as normal sexual beings, whereas women are entirely excluded from this discourse. Femininity in Gilead translates into invisibility, modesty and silence. Women are regarded as being sexually neutral and are reduced to means of reproduction. Offred, who has lost her voice and agency in this society, attempts to create her own narrative through which she can exercise her resistance. However, the lack of consistency and her inability to adjust herself to the new values and norms result in an identity crisis, which is represented through her sense of melancholia and the obvious inconsistencies in her values. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2018 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/1/20490-71907-1-PB.pdf Moosavinia, Sayyed Rahim and Yousefi, Tayyebeh Behvand (2018) New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 24 (1). pp. 162-174. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1076
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Using Butler's theory of gender performativity and her analysis of the psychic form of power, this paper attempts to show how the modification of gender by power in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has resulted in an identity crisis in the female protagonist, Offred. One significant aspect of the totalitarian regime of Gilead is its gender hierarchy that is further consolidated through sex discourse. Sex in Gilead turns into a privilege granted only to men of high social status. Men are presented as normal sexual beings, whereas women are entirely excluded from this discourse. Femininity in Gilead translates into invisibility, modesty and silence. Women are regarded as being sexually neutral and are reduced to means of reproduction. Offred, who has lost her voice and agency in this society, attempts to create her own narrative through which she can exercise her resistance. However, the lack of consistency and her inability to adjust herself to the new values and norms result in an identity crisis, which is represented through her sense of melancholia and the obvious inconsistencies in her values.
format	Article
author	Moosavinia, Sayyed Rahim Yousefi, Tayyebeh Behvand
spellingShingle	Moosavinia, Sayyed Rahim Yousefi, Tayyebeh Behvand New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale
author_facet	Moosavinia, Sayyed Rahim Yousefi, Tayyebeh Behvand
author_sort	Moosavinia, Sayyed Rahim
title	New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale
title_short	New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale
title_full	New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale
title_fullStr	New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale
title_full_unstemmed	New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale
title_sort	new norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in margaret atwood’s the handmaid's tale
publisher	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2018
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12881/1/20490-71907-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:03:36Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:03:36Z
_version_	1777407010972631040

New norms of gender and emergence of identity crisis in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale

Similar Items